The York “Regenerative…

The York “Regenerative Recycling Facility”, now landfill, was decided to be put on a 0.8 hectare lot north of Dresden Ontario on 21 highway. The York 1 company has made the facility sound like à great thing that will benefit the community. But this is not the case. We need to think about the environmental impacts and consequences, the health problems that it poses for the residents of Dresden and the area surrounding the facility and finally how they are transporting all the trash/recyclables to the site.
To start the site is located right on Molly’s Creek. This creek runs 2 km from where the facility will be (29831 Irish School Road) to connect with the Sydenham River. The Sydenham River is one of the most species rich watersheds in all of Canada.
More than 20 fish and mussels in the Sydenham are Species at Risk (SAR). The Watershed also supports many other semi-aquatic SAR including amphibians, turtles, snakes, and dragonflies. Some of these species are found nowhere else in Canada or only in only a few locations globally. The Sydenham
Watershed is of global conservation concern for the presence of these species. (2024 St. Clair Region Conservation authority-The Sydenham River Watershed)
York1 can not guarantee there will be no water contamination of Molly’s Creek or local water wells. York 1 would like Chatham-Kent to extend à waterline to the area for the facilities and its neighbors. (George Kirchmair, the vice president of Environmental Services for York1, Feb 10, 2024). This statement proves how the underground water is à concern, if York1 is asking for à water line before they even start the facility.
Furthermore there are airborne particles that come from everything that is being said to be brought to the facility. To name a few there will be Airborne Asbestos, Fiberglass, and Silica dust. These particles when in the air will cause many different types of lung diseases as well as cancer. Also there will be Methane gasses coming from the decaying leftover “garbage”. Methane gas at high exposures does the same thing às carbon monoxide in high doses, but in low dosage and long exposure time will lead to problems with your airway. It can also cause babies to have Asthma problems as they grow up because of the Methane gas they were in all the time as little kids. We need to protect ourselves now but as well as future generations as it will just keep getting increasingly worse.
The trucks also pose a safety hazard to the community. The more than 175 trucks per day is à huge threat to Dresden residents as they will not be used to there being so many trucks and the trucks will not care about the roads. They are a long way from home and they want to get in and out as fast as possible. There are 2 schools and crosswalks within 1km of each other and the streets in town are already very narrow with no room for 175+ trucks per day. But if they don’t go through Dresden they will have to go through either Bothwell which is even smaller than Dresden, Thamesville that has very narrow streets and even less room with more travel through it per day, and the last option would be to go through Kent Bridge which is à very bad corner to begin with. The Chatham-Kent roads and bridges were not built for this much traffic of such heavy loads. This will lead them to deteriorate faster and who will pay for the repairs?
There are many environmental concerns. One is emissions from the trucks that will be used to transport the waste. 7000 tonnes of waste (6000 tonnes a day of waste for reuse + 1000 tonnes a day of residual waste for final disposal) would require 175 four axle semi trucks (7000
tonnes divided by 40 tonnes per truck = 175 trucks) to bring waste into the site daily and then leave the site with the trailers probably empty. 175 does not include the number of trucks that would be required to enter the site empty and leave with the recycled materials. A single truck of this size emits 105g of CO2 per kilometer. One truck traveling one way from Toronto to Dresden (291km) emits 30 555g of CO2. One truck making the return trip to Toronto emits 61 110g of CO2. This number quickly grows. 175 trucks traveling this distance emit 10 694 250g of CO2 per day. We are trying to decrease emissions that cause climate change. The location of this proposed site does not decrease emissions.
For these reasons, which are just a few to begin with. The proposal that York1 has put forth and is acting on very quickly should be slowed down with more time to plan and discuss all the issues that are present and that will occur. Or completely shutdown all together.